Military Resistance 7K18

An Unknown Soldier Uses Fort Hood Killings To Threaten Benning Commanding General:

"A Box Of Hollow-Point Bullets And An Anonymous Note"

"Tell The Commanding General To Call Off All Charges Or There Will Be A Re-Enactment Of Fort Hood"

[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, Military Resistance, who sent this in.]

Nov 22, 2009 By Gina Cavallaro, Army Times [Excerpts]

A box of hollow-point bullets and an anonymous note threatening an incident like the one at Fort Hood, Texas, were discovered Thursday at Fort Benning, Ga., sparking a criminal investigation and greater police presence, a witness told Army Times.

According to a witness at the scene, a box of 20 hollow-point shells and a handwritten note were found in the motor pool area between 1st Battalion and 2nd Battalion, 29th Infantry, under the 197th Infantry Training Brigade.

"The note said 'tell the commanding general to call off all charges or there will be a re-enactment of Fort Hood,’ " the witness told Army Times.  He spoke on condition he wouldn’t be identified.

After the discovery, he said, military police arrived with dogs, cordoned off a 20-foot perimeter around the box and began dusting for fingerprints and questioning people.

"They’re talking with anyone with a pending charge and people who are getting chaptered out to see if they can find out who it is," the witness said.

"A suspicious package and note were found," post spokeswoman Elsie Jackson said. "The soldier notified a noncommissioned officer, who alerted 911. The area was secured as is normal in these types of incidents."

The witness said soldiers in the unit were asked to step forward and were nervous about the possibility of a copycat crime like the Nov. 5 shootings at Fort Hood, in which 13 people were killed while waiting for medical appointments.

The witness said he has seen an increase in MP patrols on post and that the Kelley Hill area of Fort Benning had been placed on a lockdown status for part of the day Friday.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

FORT LEWIS:

Soldier Killed In Afghanistan Leaves Two Young Kids:

"Brian Had A Hard Life"

10/31/09 DEBBIE CAFAZZO; The News Tribune

Pfc. Brian R. Bates Jr. wasn’t afraid to fight for his country, said the grandmother who raised him.

"It didn’t faze him in the least that he was going to war," said Bates’ grandmother, Marline Tully of Gretna, La.  "That was what he had to do and what he was trained to do."

Bates, 20, was one of eight Fort Lewis soldiers who died last week in Afghanistan in two separate attacks. He is survived by his wife, Enjolie, and a 2-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son.

"He loved the Army and he wanted to make a career out of it," said Enjolie Bates.  "He was a great guy, a great husband and a great dad. His kids were Daddy’s boy and Daddy’s girl."

The Department of Defense released details of Bates’ death Saturday. The Stryker vehicle driver died Oct. 27 in Kandahar of wounds suffered when his vehicle was attacked with an improvised explosive.

Bates was a member of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment. He deployed to Afghanistan in July with others from Fort Lewis’ 5th Stryker Brigade.

Bates enlisted in the Army in 2008 and was on his first deployment when he was killed.

"Brian had a hard life," said his grandmother, who said her grandson’s first child was born when Bates was only 17.

"He had to grow up fast.  A lot of young men might have walked away, but he took full responsibility, and he was by their side as best he could be. He did what he needed to do."

Tully said Bates worked for a time in Louisiana’s offshore oil industry, but got interested in an Army career after talking to a recruiter.

He saw the Army as a way to take care of his family, she said. 

She worried about the risks of war, even as they laughed together during his weekly phone calls to her from Afghanistan.

"He tried to shield me," Tully said. "I’d say, 'Watch where you put your feet, Brian,’ and he’d laugh.  He’d tell me, 'We roll over those bombs all the time.’"

Enjolie Bates said she, too, spoke frequently with her husband while he was deployed.

"I talked to him the night before his mission," she said.  She said Brian never shared details, but he did let her know that there was serious fighting going on in the region where he was deployed.

"It still came as a shock," she said of her husband’s death. "When those two guys showed up at my door, I thought they were here for some other reason."

She said she has been keeping close to her kids as the family prepares to head back to Louisiana for her husband’s funeral and burial.

Bates came to Fort Lewis in March, following training at Fort Benning, Ga. His family followed in April.

Enjolie Bates said she has been surrounded by members of an Army care team since she learned of her husband’s death. She said neighbors have been bringing her food.

Back in Gretna on Saturday, Tully described flags flying at half-staff all over town in honor of the fallen soldier.

"He would have been proud," she said. "He was a very brave young man. I’m very proud of him."

Online Profiles Offer Glimpse Of Soldier Killed In Afghanistan Crash

Oct. 30, 2009 By KEITH ROGERS and RICHARD LAKE, LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Las Vegas Army Sgt. Josue E. Hernandez-Chavez was a veteran combat soldier with six deployments under his belt when his helicopter crashed Monday, killing him and nine others from a special operations team who were returning from a fierce firefight with the Taliban in western Afghanistan.

He was also a 23-year-old guy with a muscular physique, a love of fast cars and a hopeful outlook, judging by the Myspace and Facebook profiles of him and his friends.

He was called "Sway" online, an apparent reference to how his first name was pronounced.  He last logged onto his Myspace page a week before he died.  He listed his mood as "stoked" and wrote that "November is going to be a great month." He listed his interests as "Cars, Cars, Cars, Boobs, Cars, Beer, and Cars. Yup, typical guy."

He wrote that he was in a relationship, and had no children.

His mother, Eustolia Hernandez, was expected to escort his remains to his hometown, after President Barack Obama observed the transfer at Dover Air Force Base, Del., and a ceremony was held Thursday at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga., home of the famed Night Stalkers 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, officials said.

A statement posted today on the Army Special Operations Command’s Web site said the Hernandez family acknowledges "the overwhelming and sincere outpouring of sympathy from the local community."

"We sincerely appreciate the nation’s interest in Josue’s life and his contributions to our great nation," the statement reads.  They asked that the media respect their privacy.

According to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, Hernandez-Chavez was a native of Las Vegas who joined the Army in February 2005.  The Pentagon on Thursday listed his residence as Reno, but national locator records show his mother has lived in the Las Vegas Valley since at least 1995.

Their home in east Las Vegas appeared quiet today, though there were several cars parked behind a closed gate that surrounded the property.

There was an outpouring of grief online after his death become public.

A young blond woman who is pictured with him in romantic embraces wrote that her mood is "destroyed" and listed her status on Myspace as "i cant stop crying baby i miss you so much please come back to me!!"

The woman, identified on Myspace as Ioana Rotaru, wrote on Hernandez-Chavez’s page: "i miss you so much :((((( sweetie ... we will see each other soon :( RIP baby..."

Others poured out their emotions, as well:

"i miss u already"

"I remember all the plans we made for u when you were coming in Dec."!

"always and forever in our hearts man"

He posted photos of his time in the military, at a Nine Inch Nails concert, celebrating New Year’s Eve in Puerto Rico, of him as a small child holding a teddy bear, and a dozen photos of a souped-up Audi, which he called "my baby."

In his first year with his Army unit, he was a medium helicopter repairman. But, in August 2006 his title changed to flight engineer.

All six of his combat deployments were in support of the global war on terrorism.

His awards include two Army Commendation medals, the Army Good Conduct medal, the National Defense Service medal, the Afghanistan Campaign medal with campaign star, the Iraqi Campaign medal with campaign star, the Combat Action badge, the Basic Aviation badge and the Parachutist badge.

He was the 66th military personnel with ties to Nevada to die in the nation’s overseas wars since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, and the second to die in Afghanistan in a week’s span.

Army Pfc. Kimble A. Han, a 30-year-old former Cheyenne High School student from North Las Vegas, was killed in a roadside bomb attack Oct. 23.

Hernandez-Chavez is survived by his father, Pedro Hernandez; mother, Eustolia; and sisters Cristina and Mayra Hernandez, all from Las Vegas.

Terrell Soldier Killed In Afghan Chopper Crash

Oct 29, 2009 By Steve Pickett (CBS 11 / TXA 21)

TERRELL

President Obama got a firsthand look at the ultimate cost of war. He made a surprise overnight visit to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, to witness the return of 18 Americans killed this week in Afghanistan.

One of those soldiers is a native of Terrell. Shawn McNabb was killed in a helicopter crash.

Rainstorms darkened the day for the Town of Terrell on Thursday. The grayness that surrounded local businesses like the Village of Poetry and Jack's Town and Country Feed Store was also fed by the news of a hometown boy killed in action.

"Everything was Shawn," McNabb's friend Dee Glover said of the medic's parents. "They were just so proud of him."

Glover had known Shawn all of his life. She watched the 2003 Terrell High School graduate grow up right next door and she watched his family leave this morning headed to Georgia.

Shawn, a combat medic with the U.S. Army, died Sunday. Glover proudly exclaimed that Shawn was a fine example of the community he called home. "I went back and sat with them, because it's so hard and they don't have any family that's really close... nothing right around here. And when you're sitting there and you're by yourself, it's twice as hard on you. And to lose your son, your only son, even makes it worse."

We're told Shawn McNabb wanted to follow in his mother's footsteps. Shawn's mother was a nurse.

Dothan Man Remembered After Fatal Afghanistan Helicopter Crash

October 30, 2009 By Matt Elofson, Dothan Eagle

Jesse Lee recently lost his neighbor.

But Lee said he lost more than a neighbor. He lost a friend when Niall Lyons recently died from the injuries he suffered in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

Lyons, 40, was one of 10 U.S. servicemen to die Monday after the Chinook helicopter they were flying in crashed in Western Afghanistan.

U.S. Army Sgt. Eric Hendrix, of the public affairs office at Fort Bragg, N.C., said Lyons was one of seven U.S. Army Special Operations Command Soldiers who died in the crash. Hendrix also confirmed three U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents also died in the crash.

"We shared life together for about four years," Lee said. "He was the best neighbor I ever had. My family had gone through some difficult times, and he was there for us. He became more than just a neighbor, he was part of our family."

Lyons lived in Dothan with his 8-year-old son, John Patrick Lyons. According to Lee and a U.S. Army statement, Lyons was a native of Spokane, Wash., and joined the Army in 1994, before his move to the Dothan in 1998.

Lyons served as an Army helicopter pilot, and according to information provided by the U.S. Army, he served as combat veteran with two deployments, including Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. According to an Army statement, Lyons was most recently assigned to 3rd Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Airborne Regiment in Savannah, Ga.

Lee recalled sharing many a meal with Lyons, including some over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Gussie Lee, Jesse’s wife, said she and her husband last saw Lyons over the Labor Day holiday weekend. Lee said Lyons was a member of St. Columba Catholic Church in Dothan.

"He was coming home in November, and he would’ve had Thanksgiving with us, and we would’ve gone fishing," Jesse Lee said. "But what I’ll miss the most about him is his friendship." 

Phil Schmiesing of Enterprise attended a memorial service at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga., Friday afternoon with his wife, Robin Schmiesing, that honored several of the people who died in the crash, including Lyons. Phil Schmiesing said he first met Lyons about 10 years ago when he served as Lyons’ flight instructor.

"He’s like a brother to us," said Robin Schmiesing. "Our home was his home when he came home, he spent Christmases with us. He loved spending time with his son. That was the joy of his life."

Phil and Robin Schmiesing are god-parents to John Patrick Lyons.

Gussie Lee described Lyons as very patriotic and that he died doing what he believed in, serving his country.

Hendrix said the cause of the helicopter crash remained under investigation Friday. But he said enemy fire has been ruled out as a cause to the crash. He said dust could’ve likely got into the aircraft’s engine and caused the crash.

According to a statement from the DEA Web site, the three DEA agents had recently returned from a successful counter narcotics operation during which they served search warrants in a western province of Afghanistan when the crash happened.

"It was a joint mission involving the DEA," Hendrix said.

"13,000 Attacks Between January And The End Of August This Year"

[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, Military Resistance, who sent this in.]

22 November 2009 By Jonathan Owen, Independent [Excerpt]

In Afghanistan, there were nearly 13,000 attacks between January and the end of August this year – more than two-and-a-half times the number experienced during the same period last year and a fivefold increase on the total in 2005.

"The most recent data available, as of August 2009, showed the highest rate of enemy-initiated attacks since Afghanistan's security situation began to deteriorate," according to a new study published by the US Government Accountability Office this month.

Hamid Karzai Takes Charge Of Afghanistan

[Steve Bell, UK]

Resistance Action

Nov 20 By Sharaffuddin Sharafyar, Reuters & Nov. 22 (Xinhua) & TREND News Agency & AFP

Taliban militants attacked a patrol team of German forces in Kunduz province north of Afghanistan Sunday, officials said.  "German troops were on routine patrol in Nahr-e-Sufi area of Chardara district when Taliban insurgents targeted them with rocket propelled grenade at 2 p.m. local time but caused no loss of life and damage," governor of Chardara district Abdul Wahed Omarkhil told Xinhua.

The provincial governor of southwestern Farah province, Rohul Amin, said a bomber on a motorcycle detonated his explosives in a crowded area of Farah City.  Farah Province Police Chief Faqir Mohammad Askar said the target of the attack was a senior police official, who was killed along with two of his bodyguards.

An Afghan parliamentarian escaped a roadside bomb blast unhurt on the outskirts of Kabul Friday, but five of his bodyguards were killed, said a police official who declined to be named.  Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, who heads an Islamic political party, was driving in a convoy in Paghman just outside Kabul when the convoy was hit by a bomb placed under a bridge.

Unknown armed men gunned down a service member of intelligence service in Taliban birthplace Kandahar south of Afghanistan Sunday, a private television channel reported.  "Unidentified men shot dead an employee of National Security Directorate in Kandahar city this morning," Tolo television said in its news bulletin, Xinhua reported.

Five Afghan border guards were killed when a roadside bomb blast hit their patrol in the troubled southern province of Kandahar Sunday, police said.  The attack occurred in the Spin Boldak district bordering Pakistan during a pre-dawn patrol, said General Abdul Raziq, provincial border police commander.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE

END THE OCCUPATIONS

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION

ALL TROOPS HOME NOW!

Notes >From A Lost War:

"The People Said The Americans Are Arresting Kids And Old People"

"Spurning The Offer Of A Ride Home In A Stryker, "He Turned Limping Away From The Americans As Fast As His Frail Legs Could Carry Him"

11.23.09 By Sean D. Naylor, Army Times [Excerpts]

The denizens of this dusty market town had never seen anything like the sight that greeted them at midday Oct. 12.

The previous day, a handful of insurgents in a nearby village had made the mistake of shooting at a pair of U.S. OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters. Stryker-borne infantry rushed to the scene and, together with the helicopters, engaged the Taliban, killing one, wounding another, who got away, and detaining three more.

Now, rolling slowly down the main street of the bazaar, came five Stryker vehicles with the weapons captured in that fight tied to their fronts on full display for the locals.

Capt. Sayed Asif has just taken command of an Afghan National Army company located three kilometers from Ramrod at Combat Outpost Pegasus.

Sitting cross-legged on a mattress on the floor of his hilltop command post, which doubles as his quarters, Asif relayed what he had heard on his first walk through the Hutal bazaar.

"The people said the Americans are arresting kids and old people," he said.  "They are making enemies for themselves."

The insurgents also spread their propaganda through their allies in the mosques, which U.S. troops are forbidden to enter.

"The mullahs tell the people that the Afghan government is not a Muslim government," said Abdul Fatah, the deputy principal. "The mullahs say, 'don’t help the government,’ and that the people should do jihad against the government."

Even an apparent clear-cut success, such as the killing of the two men digging the IED hole in Luy Kariz, can seem a much murkier affair once the Taliban disinformation campaign swings into action.

A few days after that attack, French [Lt. Col. Jeff French] and his troops returned to Luy Kariz and conducted a second sweep of the village. In each compound they entered, the U.S. soldiers patiently explained to the men of the house how and why the two men had been killed.

But to the Americans’ frustration, the locals all repeated a version of the same story: that they had heard that the men who had been killed were "innocent people watering their fields," in the words of Nazzar Mohammad, a local mullah.

At the conclusion of the clearing mission, French met in the middle of a field with Said Salim, the diminutive, white-haired malik of the Saydan tribe in Luy Kariz, who was deposited at the meeting place by one of French’s Strykers.

The battalion commander tried to reason with the tribal elder, reiterating some of his favorite talking points.

"The Taliban are using your sons right now," French said. "The Taliban are cowards. They don’t have the courage to go out there and lay the IEDs themselves." Salim denied that his sons were laying IEDs, but added, "We are in the middle."  (He might also have been thinking of the two maliks the Taliban had dragged from their homes and beaten to death in Luy Kariz last winter.)

"The Taliban are weak," French countered. "They don’t care about you." "I know they don’t care about us," the elder said, a sad, defeated expression creasing his worn face. The Taliban don’t even talk to the villagers, he added.  Instead, they impose a 9 p.m. curfew on the village — only farmers working in their fields are exempt — and communicate with the locals by posting letters at night in the mosque. "We are seeing that letter in the morning," Salim said through an interpreter.

In response, French gave the elder a couple of Task Force Legion calling cards and asked him to put them up on the wall of the mosque, as well.

The cards show pictures of a Stryker and an OH-58D firing on the left, with photographs of U.S. troops hosting a shura and handing out gifts to children on the right, accompanied by the words, "We’re not going anywhere — it’s your choice," in English and Pashto.

The elder took the cards, but handled them as if they might explode in his hands.

Then, spurning the offer of a ride home in a Stryker, he turned and shuffled back across the sandy, rutted fields towards his village, limping away from the Americans as fast as his frail legs could carry him.

TROOP NEWS

Cognitive Therapy And Prolonged Exposure Therapy — "Talking About A Traumatic Event Until Just Thinking About The Event Or Telling The Story No Longer Brings A Stress Reaction  — Have Been Shown To Help Troops With PTSD"

11.23.09 Army Times

WHAT’S UP: Yale University researchers are looking at how the Veterans Affairs Department has implemented two evidence­based treatment programs for post-traumatic stress disorder within their residential treatment programs.

Cognitive therapy, training veterans to think differently about an issue and how to better react when a symptom arises — and prolonged exposure therapy — talking about a traumatic event until just thinking about the event or telling the story no longer brings a stress reaction — have been shown to help troops with PTSD.

The researchers, using a grant from the National Institutes of Health, will assess 250 providers in residential programs to see whether those treatments have been properly implemented.

The funding comes as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the legislation designed to help the American economy recover from the recession. As more veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD, the grant seeks to make sure the resources exist to help those veterans function in their communities.

It comes after complaints that VA’s PTSD programs are not consistent and do not always include therapies that have been proven to work.

Yale’s Dr. Joan Cook will work with the National Center for PTSD, which oversees the cognitive and prolonged exposure therapies.

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

"At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.  Oh had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.

"For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

"We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake." 

Frederick Douglass, 1852

"Hope for change doesn't cut it when you're still losing buddies."

-- J.D. Englehart, Iraq Veterans Against The War

Moral Conflict

From: Mike Hastie

To: Military Resistance

Sent: November 18, 2009

Subject: Moral Conflict

                                    Moral Conflict

I would have  never believed when I came back from Vietnam,

that my whole past would be in front of me for the rest of my life.

As the years went by I began to understand that the war in

Vietnam was a moral dilemma for me,

and had absolutely nothing to do with preserving democracy,

or serving my country.

The Vietnam War was a total lie,

and that reality eventually put me 

in a psychiatric hospital.

The most powerful military force the world has ever seen,

nearly destroyed one of the poorest countries in the world.

If the churches in America knew what really happened in

Vietnam,

they would dismantle their limited concept of God.

Mike Hastie

U.S. Army Medic

Vietnam 1970-71

November 18, 2009

Photo and caption from the I-R-A-Q (I  Remember  Another  Quagmire) portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71.  (For more of his outstanding work, contact at: (hastiemike@earthlink.net)  T)

Wolf

From: Dennis Serdel

To: Military Resistance

Sent: November 19, 2009

Subject: Wolf

Written by Dennis Serdel, Military Resistance 2009

Dennis Serdel, Vietnam 1967-68 (one tour) Light Infantry, Americal Div. 11th Brigade, purple heart, Veterans For Peace 50 Michigan, Vietnam Veterans Against The War, United Auto Workers GM Retiree, in Perry, Michigan

********************************************************

                    Wolf

The Military psychiatrist asks,

"Why did you try and kill yourself?"

The Soldier had his stomach

pumped out for a bottle full of pills

that he thought could get him out of

Iraq or Afghanistan

on his 7th tour.

The black tiled room felt like it

was twenty feet long as he hung

his head.

He told the guys back at the barracks

to go to the CO and tell them he

just took a whole bottle of pills

which they did.

He really didn't want to die this way

he just wanted to go home

and get out of this military mess.

The psychiatrist asks him

if he wanted to die and the Soldier

just scratched his head and looked down

after awhile he looked up and said, "No."

He couldn't lie very well, never did

and that's why he couldn't

go through with it.

Now he lays at the bottom

in an inexpensive coffin

he really did it this time.

Yeah, the other Soldiers

saw him laying in his bunk

but they just thought he was sick.

Nobody ran down to tell the CO

so the pills stayed right in his gut.

How many times can a man

lie about everything

crying wolf and thinking

he will be saved some way ?

MORE:

MORE OF DENNIS SERDEL’S WORK IN PEACE SPEAKS FROM THE MIRROR:

Get Some While There Still Are Some To Get:

[You know the power of the poems by Dennis Serdel from the front pages of Military Resistance:  now they’re in book form: Ordering information below: T]

DENNIS SERDEL:

Shipped to Vietnam in November 1967.

Returned home in October 1968 to Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Joined Veterans For Peace in January 1990.

Joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War when Iraq and Afghanistan War started.

Books are $15 Post Paid:

Check or Money Order Payable to Dennis Serdel

Dennis Serdel

339 Oakwood Lane

Perry,

Michigan 48872

Walt Whitman

Carl Sandburg

Allan Ginsberg

Now: Dennis Serdel

T

"With The Growth Of Civilian Support And A Consequent Greater Degree Of Unity And Self-Awareness Among Base Projects, The GI Movement Displayed Increasing Strength And Political Sophistication"

From: SOLDIERS IN REVOLT: DAVID CORTRIGHT, Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1975.  Now available in paperback from Haymarket Books.  [Excerpts]

Most major organizations experienced an occasional lull because of cadre turnover, repression, etc., but in nearly every instance new activists rose to sustain the struggle -- as I found in my own experience at Fort Bliss.

When I arrived in Texas, in July 1970, GIs for Peace was in a state of disarray, with the chairman and most of the active members discharged and no activities scheduled. 

Meetings soon began, however, and within a few months a GI coffeehouse had been set up in downtown EI Paso, Gigline was again circulating, and the core membership had increased to twenty-five soldiers.

On October 31, a major peace rally was held at the local University of Texas campus, with over four hundred GIs joining several hundred civilians to hear featured speaker Rennie Davis.

Several months later, on March 21, 1971; GIs for Peace engaged in another successful action, this time countering a pro-war "Honor POW Day" held in EI Paso. 

The POW Day sponsors (among them several officers at Fort Bliss) had expected a crowd of fifteen thousand people to kick off a massive "tell it to Hanoi" campaign.

Because of the vigorous publicity and educational drive mounted by local peace forces, however, only a few hundred people actually showed -- including approximately one hundred GIs for Peace members who had come to distribute anti-war literature.

An increasingly important element in sustaining, political activity at Fort Lewis, Fort Bliss, and elsewhere was, the growth of civilian support.

One result of this support was an increase in the number of civilians working directly with soldiers at the local level.

Recently discharged GIs, and in some cases outside civilian radicals, formed collectives and, often with the aid of USSF [United States Servicemen’s Fund], provided legal counseling and other services to active-duty organizers.

A number of observers, most notably Fred Gardner, have been highly critical of such arrangements, claiming that civilians often exploit GIs for sectarian political purposes and stifle spontaneous dissent.

To a certain degree the criticism is valid, but it is also true that civilian workers impart needed stability and legal expertise to GI projects.

Indeed, in some cases their presence sparked substantial political activity among servicemen. 

At Fort Ord, for example, a civilian collective in March 1971 started a new base paper, P.O.W.; within a few months, a new GI group emerged, the "United Soldiers Union."

Similarly; civilians helped establish an important new organizing center and coffeehouse near Fort Campbell, in Clarksville, Tennessee. 

The center, known as the "People’s House," was immediately successful, attracting over two hundred soldiers in its first six weeks and publishing the newspaper People’s Press. 

The group’s first major action occurred on April 10, when approximately three hundred people, many of them active-duty, demonstrated at the ClarksvilIe federal building against the jailing of Lieutenant William Calley. 

The protesters demanded that the leaders responsible for the war, not low-ranking servicemen, be tried as war criminals.

With the growth of civilian support and a consequent greater degree of unity and self-awareness among base projects, the GI movement displayed increasing strength and political sophistication.

November 23, 1170 BC:

The First Recorded Strike

Carl Bunin Peace History November 19-25

The first recorded strike took place in Egypt when necropolis workers who had not been paid for their work in more than two months sat down and refused to work until they were paid and able to eat.

November 23, 1887:

Dishonorable Anniversary

The Louisiana Militia Butchers Unarmed Sugar Plantation Strikers

Carl Bunin Peace History November 19-25

Black Louisiana sugarcane workers, in cooperation with the racially integrated Knights of Labor, went on strike.

The Louisiana Militia, aided by bands of "prominent citizens," shot and killed 35 unarmed black sugar workers striking to gain a dollar-per-day wage, and lynched two strike leaders.

******************************************

"Many Were Told To 'Run For Their Lives’ Before Being Summarily Executed"

By Stephen Kliebert, Dougriddle.com [Excerpts]

The Thibodaux Massacre of 1887 was the second most bloody labor dispute in U.S. history.

Although most of the blood letting occurred in the environs of Thibodaux, the strike encompassed a larger area.  The strike affected sugar plantations in St. Mary, Terrebonne, and Lafourche parishes. These parishes make up an area known as the "sugar bowl." Thibodaux is the parish seat of Lafourche.

The plight of the sugar cane worker in 1887 was one of back-breaking labor and meager pay.

Most field hands were paid approximately 13 dollars a month.  They were also paid in script.  Script was basically a coupon redeemable only at the company store owned by the planter. The store’s prices were normally marked up 100%.

You can see that the worker usually wound up being indebted to the planter.  Louisiana law stated that if a worker owed money to a planter he could not move off the planters land until the debt was paid.  This law essentially reduced the plantation laborer to the status of serf.

In 1885 the Knights of Labor was successful in organizing railroad workers who worked for the Charles Morgan Railroad and Steamboat company.  The company owned a stretch of tracks that ran from New Orleans to Texas.  The railroad passes through the communities of Des Allemands, Raceland, Schreiver, and Morgan City on its way to Texas. 

The K. of L. felt that the sugar cane workers were fertile ground to expand their organization. In 1886 a L.A. (local assembly) of the K. of L. was established in Schreiver, La. for sugar cane workers.

It was the probably the first assembly of a labor union that allowed both black and white members to join.  During a time when a strict caste system was imposed this was one hell of an achievement!

In late October, 1887 LA 8404 (Schriever local) presented a list of demands to L.S.P.A.  The L.S.P.A.’s (Louisiana Sugar Producer’s Association), members included local sugar planters.  The workers wanted elimination of script, a small increase in their daily wages, and payment every two weeks..  The planter’s association rejected the demands

The planter aristocracy ruled Louisiana at this point in time.  They worked for many years to deny poor whites and blacks access to education, and better working conditions.  They were not about to cede any of their power now.

The Knights of Labor scheduled a strike to commence on the 1st of November 1887.

The strike began during the crucial harvest period known as "grinding."  On November 1st workers in St. Mary, Lafourche, and Terrebonne parishes refused to work, and refused to vacate their cabins that were plantation-owned.  Attempts to evict tenants by local sheriffs were unsuccessful.

The sugar planters were faced with the possibility of losing their crops to a freeze if the strike persisted.

On the same day the strike began, the planters association called on the governor to send them help in the form of the state militia. 

Governor McEnery(1881-1888) who was himself a plantation owner had no problem in ordering the state militia to the embattled region.  The first militia companies arrived in Schriever, Louisiana from New Orleans on the first of November. They made the short trip to Thibodaux where they intended to store their equipment which included horses, rifles, and a Gatling gun in front of the Lafourche parish courthouse.

The two militia companies that arrived in Thibodaux were not the only ones to take part in strike-breaking.  Other companies were sent to Houma and Lockport. 

Some 10,000 plantation workers took part in the strike.  Most of the strikers were black, but nearly 1000 were white.

The militia companies sent to the region worked with local judges in evicting strikers from plantations, and provided protection for "scabs" sent in to replace the strikers.

When striking plantation workers were faced with soldiers armed with Springfield rifles they offered little to no resistance.  They heeded the orders to leave the plantations. Many congregated in the black section of Thibodaux.

Problems arose when white scabs were fired upon in Terrebonne parish. Strikers, who were forced off plantations, were believed to be involved in firing into sugar mills in Lafourche parish.

Pickets were placed in around the city of Thibodaux.  The "pickets" were composed of white civilians from Thibodaux, and neighboring parishes.  They were no doubt horrified by the rumor spreading around town that black strikers intended to burn the city down.

The struggle came to a head when two white picketers were fired upon while at their posts in a black section of town.  The two picketers survived, but the incident enraged the white population of Thibodaux.  White vigilantes rode through the neighborhood firing their weapons and wreaking havoc.

Strikers and their family members were rounded up by vigilantes.  Many were told to "run for their lives", before being summarily executed.

On the morning of November 23, 1887 anywhere between 30 to 300 black strikers were killed.  A company of militiamen known as the Shreveport Guards is considered to have taken place in the massacre.

OCCUPATION PALESTINE

Prison of Ghosts

(The Village of Hebron)

November 20, 2009 By Eddie Falcon, Iraq Veterans Against The War; Againstmilitarism.wordpress.com

Eddie Falcon

Branch: United States Air Force (USAF)

Rank: E-4

Home: California

Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran.

Served in Hurricane Katrina aid.

No Gods No Masters.

**************************************************

           Prison of Ghosts (The Village of Hebron)

I walk the haunted halls of Hebron

A cage within a cage

Tiers of cells

Cold and dampened by the tears and blood of village ghosts

Metal bars upon metal screens

The silenced screams of children

Scarred by spikes and stones

Thrown from the balconies of stolen homes

Little boys and girls skirmish

Laughter echoes the gauntlet

Painful passages etched and carved through concrete walls

But cannot escape the prison

They gather and gaze across welded, wounded windows

Searching for a horizon of hope

Only to stare unto a hollow hill of broken bones

With broken hearts

Imperial sentinels in the fortress of phantasms

Torment and terrorize the vestiges of villagers

From dawn

Until dusk

A time when they must climb back into their sorrowful cells

Sleeping and dreaming through the darkness

Ghosts chained to a memory

Forgotten

Feared

Forced into a cage within a cage

The settler slings sand at my face

For my face is just as the phantom’s face

Her eyes

My eyes

Our eyes are many mirrors over

Sharing the vision of a world

Without prisons

And living ghosts.

On Shahuda Street, Hebron, children behind screened-off windows to protect them from stones thrown by settlers.

A father follows his daughter into their house, which means scaling a rope up the back as their front door, facing Shahuda Street, was welded shut by the military years ago.

Soldiers patrol a Palestinian marketplace.  Screens cover the walkways to protect Palestinian from objects thrown by Israeli settlers.  You can see some of those objects that got caught in the screen.

MORE:

The Graves of Be’er Sheva,

The Graves of Bir a-Sab’a

11/15/2009 From Aaron Hughes, Iraq Veterans Against The War:

Eddie Falcon our brother from IVAW San Francisco asked me to post his blog.

By Eddie Falcon of Dialogues Against Militarism [Againstmilitarism.wordpress.com]

And Iraq Veterans Against The War

Eddie Falcon

Branch: United States Air Force (USAF)

Rank: E-4

Home: California

Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran.

Served in Hurricane Katrina aid.

No Gods No Masters.

***********************************************

The Graves of Be’er Sheva, The Graves of Bir a-Sab’a

Graves

Graves of children

The graves of soldiers.

British soldiers buried by World War I

Graves of soldiers from many wars

lost or won.

'48, '67, Lebanon,

Suicides from the endless war within.

18, 19, 20, 21 years young with a loaded gun

A mother’s son in the bottom of a grave.

Mass graves, forgotten graves under concrete and commerce.

Hidden graves mirror the hidden bricks in the walls of the settler.

Stucko sprayed over and over

But you can’t hide

Your guilt

Your shame

Your hate

Your crime.

Unrecognized graves like the unrecognized Bedouin villages of the Negev

Intruded upon, homes razed, fruit trees uprooted

Family and friends pushed around and imprisoned by police.

Yet they resist and rebuild

And organize towards recognition.

They struggle and strife

To hold on to their homes

To hold on to their graves.

[To check out what life is like under a murderous military occupation by foreign terrorists, go to: www.rafahtoday.org  The occupied nation is Palestine.  The foreign terrorists call themselves "Israeli."]

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

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